PSA: New Premiere Type Tool (CC17) Slow/Sluggish with Timecode Effect

Report · May 22, 2017

Hi! Found something out about Premiere and I thought I would share.

I've been working on a project lately that is HEAVY on Adobe Premiere's (CC 2017.1.1) new Type Tool. Bunny trail: It's still a touch buggy, but it's INFINITELY better than how it previously handled text. Anyhow, everything was working perfectly fine until...something happened. I wasn't sure what that was at the time. All of a sudden, my ability to create and edit a text layer slowed to a complete crawl. Any input I gave regarding text - such as typing a character, repositioning the layer, and even moving the cursor - took anywhere from 5-20 seconds to respond. We're talking DMV-on-demerol slow. There was no way to continue my text-heavy project at this pace. I was going insane.

I poked around on the internet, but didn't find anything at the time of writing this. However, I figured it out and thought the world should know what caused this bug.

Whenever I'm exporting a draft for client review, I create a transparent video layer with the timecode effect. That way, the client can provide edits along with a timecode. It's been quite helpful!

But think of that timecode effect as oil and the type tool as water. They don't mix. At all.

Once I either 1) turned off the timecode effect or 2) turned off the timecode layer's entire video track, everything went back to being perfectly normal. Like nothing had ever happened. It was like Jesus had calmed the stormy sea.

So, in conclusion, if you are using the type tool and the timecode effect in the same project, be sure to only turn on that timecode whenever you're ready to export. It may just save your sanity. Hope this help!

- Andrew

PS: Working on a Mac running OS X Yosemite

Report · May 22, 2017

Thanks for posting! Very well researched & posted.

Now ... have you filed the bug report for this? They don't respond, of course ... but all bug reports get distributed to the upper managers who determine engineering budgets in some tabulated fashion.

Neil

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

Report · May 30, 2017

Thank you, Andrew

This is the sort of thing that I could log for you directly, except that it is not something that I can reproduce locally. Can you perhaps send me a project file that I could use to try to repro the problem locally? A minimal number of layers, effects and assets is best for testing, especially if you can get it to happen with no media or perhaps synthetic media in place of your footage. Also, if you go to Essential Graphics Panel (EGP) > Browse tab > Slates and use one of the included Slates templates, does that exhibit the same problem for you? Those mogrts were exported from pr and use the timecode effect as part of their design. Thanks in advance for your assistance and support.

-James

Report · May 31, 2017

So I created a temp project to send you so you could see what's going on. Wouldn't you know that, without going back to that original project, I can't recreate the problem either. I would send you the original project where that issue still exists, but I can't for a host of reasons. Something about that particular project just didn't like those two elements mixing. Some other variables could be that that project used Ultra Key extensively and Photoshop files for the keyed background. Past that, I'm not sure.

I'll update this post if the problem comes up again.

Report · Feb 27, 2018

I can also confirm this issue is directly related to a timecode layer in the sequence. Like Andrew said, with a timecode layer enable in the sequence, the EGP type tool becomes extremely slow - 10-20 seconds per character. Once you turn off the timecode layer, it all goes back to normal performance.

I will also file a bug report.

Report · Mar 02, 2018

As you've seen, I got your bug report. But I could not repro with the steps you listed, as well as some variations I tried. I sent you 2 basic test project yesterday. Please let me know if you can repro the same problem with either of those.

Report · Jul 18, 2018

Thanks so much for posting this. I was starting to lose my mind with this problem!